Linsac of England is now producing software for the Sinclair ZX-80. In addition to publishing the book, The ZX-80 Companion, they are marketing a series of educational and game cassettes, all of which are reaching The United States through Image Computer Products, 615 Academy Drive, Northbrook, Illinois 60062. In the U.K. they are available directly from Linsac, 68 Barker Road, Middlebrough TS5 5ES, England.
Although there are five games cassettes packages, we chose to look at the two for the 1K computer, since this is the most common version of the machine. We will reserve reviewing the educational cassettes and the games for the 2K version until a later date. Games Pack One includes Three Towers, Number Guessing, Mastermind, Sketches, Hurkle, Nim, and Simple Simon.
Three Towers is a version of the game Tower of Hanoi, in which the object is to take six graduated rings and move them from the first of three rods to the third, without ever placing a larger ring on top of a smaller one. The game is difficult until one figures out the system needed to make it work, although it continues to be time consuming. If, however, you make an improper entry, the program is unforgiving, sometimes forcing you to begin again.
The second game on the cassette is Guess a Number, which has the player deduce a number between 1 and 100 based on hints offered by the program, which tell the player whether his or her guess is above or below the value of the number trying to be guessed. This game should be particularly interesting to a child, but for an adult it is a bit limited.
Mastermind is a version of the popular board game of the same name. The machine selects a four digit code which you try to solve. After you enter your guess, the computer responds, letting you know how many digits are correct and in the right location, and how many are correct, but improperly situated. The game is extremely challenging, and made more difficult by the way in which it treats duplicated digits. For example: if the code contains two zeros, and you only have one in your guess, the machine will tell you that you have one digit in the right place and one in the wrong place.
In Sketcher, an introductory program for computer graphics. The player is given a 31 x 16 grid, on which he can enter designs. As a first encounter with computer drawing, the program is very good, and can be a delight to small children and of interest to adults.
Linsac’s version of Hurkle is a pleasure to play. The player is given a 15 x 15 grid in which a Hurkle is hiding. To find the Hurkle one must pick X and Y values corresponding to the location of the beast. With only five guesses, you must quickly follow the hints provided by the computer. To keep track of your path, I would recommend writing down both your guesses and the computer hints.
Nim is another game on this cassette, in which the player competes against the computer by taking stones away from several piles. The object is to be the last player to take a stone. The human player has the option to establish the number of piles, and the number of stones in those piles. The game is pleasant, and can often be challenging.
Symbol Simon is the final game in this series. The computer establishes a pattern of letters, numbers, or graphics, depending upon your selection. The game is fairly easy, because it just entails repeating what the program presents.
The second Linsac game package offers several more challenging games and exercises than does the first selection of games. It includes Nine Lives, The Maze Game, Plain Sailing, Noughts and Crosses, Chinese Puzzle, Tower of Hanoi, and Battleships.
The first game is Nine Lives, a version of the children’s game Hangman. Two people play, using the machine as both the paper and the scorer. The first player enters a word, and the computer tells the second person the number of letters in that word by displaying a dash for each character. With each incorrect letter entry, one of nine lives is lost. The game continues until the word is completed, or until all of the lives are gone.
The Maze Game, the second game on the tape,is one of the better Linsac games I sampled. The object is for the player to find his way through a constantly changing maze to a treasure. Quite often the maze closes in to make reaching the booty impossible. After the game ends, either by winning the treasure, or by conceding defeat (by entering 0), the computer posts the score out of a possible 18.
Plain Sailing is the third “game” on the cassette. Actually more a mathematical exercise than a game, it entails sailing a dinghy, with a top speed of six knots through a chanel four miles long and two miles wide. The sailor selects the wind speed and direction, as well as the tidal force and direction. After entering this information the player must determine the length of time and number of tacks needed for the journey. The computer then posts the actual number of minutes and tacks required. Although this is really not a game as such, it is extremely interesting, requiring a good deal of thought and attention.
The fourth game, Noughts and Crosses, commonly known as Tick Tac Toe, offers the player more of a challenge than one usually expects from this game. The ZX-80 version of this old favorite requires a different kind of strategy than when the game is played against a human opponent, because the machine is so consistent. For instance: If your first move is in the center square, the ZX-80 will always play the lower right square. If however, you choose any square but the center, the machine takes the center position. The machine will consistently win unless you take a radical plan to keep you moves on the offensive. Once you are forced into a defensive position, the machine will win, or you will draw.
The next game, Chinese Puzzle, is a challenging game requiring a great amount of patience. The object is to slide the alphabet squares around until they are in proper order. Considering there is just one vacant place on the board, this becomes a major task. The game easily becomes frustrating, because it seems that you can never really gain ground, you just switch around the squares which are in the proper positions. The game is fairly good if you are long on patience and endurance.
Tower of Hanoi is virtually identical to the Three Towers game already reviewed in this article. The primary differences are the way in which the entries are made, and that in this game the game is won by setting up all of the rings on either the second or third rod, rather than just on the third column as in the Three Towers game. The game is moderately challenging, but one version is enough.
The final game on the cassette is Battleships, which is basically a computerized version of the old board game Battleship, in which the object is to sink the enemy ships on a grid marked with X and Y coordinates. The main difference between the ZX-80 version and the board version is that the player does not have a fleet of his own. This game is based totally on trial and error, as one randomly picks X and Y coordinates to fire torpedoes into the enemy waters. The game easily becomes tiresome, because it requires no skill or cunning, just the methodical entering of coordinates.
Both of the Linsac tape packages offer some intersting games and exercises, of which my favorites are: Hurkle, The Maze Game, Plain Sailing, and one of the Tower games. Most of the games are made a little eaiser if you use pencil and paper to record your moves. The games packages are definately worth having although several of the games are not terribly challenging.